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Fancy Cake
Three cups sugar, four cups flour, one cup of butter, one cup rich milk, five eggs, yolks and whites beaten separately, one teaspoonful soda, two of cream tartar. Can be baked in patties or in a loaf. Flavor.
A large, plain butter cake of the pre-baking-powder school, written for a cook who already knew the method. Two things need filling in: the leavening behaves differently from modern baking powder, and the recipe never names a flavoring or a temperature.
- The hinge: mix and bake promptlySoda with cream of tartar begins reacting the moment it meets liquid, and there is no second lift in the oven. Sift both through the flour, fold in the beaten whites last, and get the batter into a hot pan without delay.
- Leavening equivalentOne teaspoon soda to two of cream of tartar is roughly the strength of four teaspoons of modern double-acting baking powder for four cups of flour. If you substitute baking powder, use that amount and omit both the soda and the cream of tartar.
- "Patties" means small tinsPatty pans were shallow individual tins, the ancestor of the cupcake or muffin tin, not a pastry case. Bake them at 375F for 18 to 22 minutes.
- Loaf temperature and timeThe recipe gives no oven direction. Bake at 350F, dividing the batter between two 9x5-inch loaf pans, and expect 50 to 60 minutes; a single pan of this quantity risks over-browning outside before the center sets.
- "Rich milk"Milk with the cream not skimmed off. Whole milk works; whole milk with two tablespoons of cream stirred in is closer to the intent.
- "Flavor"The recipe leaves this to the cook. Lemon extract, rose water, vanilla or almond extract were the usual choices; a teaspoon added with the milk suits the quantity, and grated lemon zest is a good modern reading.
- Butter and saltNo salt is listed, and household butter was usually salted for keeping. With unsalted butter, add half a teaspoon of salt to the flour.
- YieldFour cups of flour and five eggs make a substantial quantity: two loaves, or about 30 patties.
Soda and cream of tartar measured separately was the ordinary home leavening before packaged baking powder displaced it, and the 1:2 ratio here is close to the proportion the packaged powders later used. "Fancy cake" is less a specific dish than a loose category label for a rich butter cake made with white flour, plenty of sugar and separated eggs, as distinct from plainer cup cakes and gingerbreads; the choice of flavoring was left to the cook.